The search for alien life needs a new space telescope, astronomers say

If NASA truly wants to get serious in the search for life off of Earth, scientists argue that the space agency should launch a new, large telescope into space — one capable of directly capturing the images of planets outside our Solar System. Such technology doesn’t fully exist at the moment. But astronomers say it’s our best bet to find another Earth, one that could host biological organisms.

It’s an aspirational request, given the harsh realities that NASA has faced while trying to build its next big space observatory, the James Webb Space Telescope, or JWST. It was originally envisioned to cost $1 billion, and to launch in 2007. This past June, NASA conceded that the entire project would run $9.66 billion, and the telescope wouldn’t launch until 2021 at the earliest. And the type of telescope that this report recommends would require new technologies that haven’t been tested out in space yet, which might make the vehicle even more complex and more expensive than JWST.